It is customary in the industry to pre-tin the leads of ICs during the manufacturing process. This enhances the quality of subsequently formed solder joints at the leads resulting in increased reliability of the final product. One difficulty associated with such tinning operations, however, is in constraining the tinning solder to just the leads. If solder is permitted to contact the body of the IC, excess solder may be retained where the lead exits the body and solder bridges may be formed between leads.
What is needed is a device for holding ICs with respect to the molten solder of a wave soldering machine during tinning of the leads whereby molten solder is prevented from reaching the body of the IC.